West Ham United have secured a season-long loan deal for Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart.

The 30-year old was the Sky Blues’ No1 for eight straight seasons before being pushed out of the squad by new manager Pep Guardiola, who sent the England No1 to Torino for a season.

After returning from Italy, Hart will be joining a Premier League side with the intention of continuing to make his banishment look like a major mistake.

Manchester City are reportedly close to signing Pepe Reina from Napoli, which would be the club’s third goalkeeper signing since Guardiola became manager last summer, none of which have the talent level of Joe Hart.

Claudio Bravo was horrendous last season and appears to be nearing an exit, while the jury is still out on new signing Ederson, who has never played outside the Portuguese league.

West Ham have had their own goalkeeping woes of late. Adrian had been the club’s first choice since arriving from Real Betis on a free, but his poor form early on last season had given playing time to Irishman Darren Randolph, who also has failed to impress.

Both current Hammers keepers are 30-years-old, like Hart, but have never shown the ability that the English No1 has.

Hart certainly makes mistakes, ever apparent during England’s Euro 2016 failure, but he also can make the impossible save rather regularly. His performance against Barcelona in the 2015 Champions League is one of the best you’ll ever see.

Hart is also one of the Premier League’s greatest at keeping out his opponents, as his 119 clean sheets are the fourth most by any English keeper. He is tied with Petr Čech with the most Golden Gloves in history, and one of Čech’s was split with Wojciech Szczęsny.

Hart’s 71 England caps are currently fourth most for a goalkeeper in national history, and he is likely to pass both Gordon Banks (73) and David Seaman (75) in the coming year.

The bottom line is, sure Hart makes mistakes, like every goalkeeper, but when he’s in form, he is one of the best in the world.

Hammers fans, get excited. You’ve signed a top-class shot-stopper.

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